Fletching unit for arrow

ABSTRACT

A unitary fletching unit for an arrow utilizing chordally directed vanes integrated with a tubular body which resiliently embraces the shaft of the arrow and on which the vanes describe a helical pattern. The fletching unit is preferably formed of an elastomeric synthetic resin of very thin section or wall thickness so as to provide a fletching unit having a weight not greater than twice the weight of a comparably sized feather fletching.

United States Patent 1191 Meszaros 1 June 11, 1974 FLETCHING UNIT FOR ARROW [76] Inventor: Ronald E. Meszaros, 1512 W.

l02nd St., Cleveland, Ohio 44102 [22] Filed: Apr. 13, 1970 [21] Appl. No.: 27,841

[52] US. Cl.. 273/1065 C, 273/D1G. 4, 273/D1G. 8

OTHER PUBLICATIONS Archery Magazine May 1957 p. 66

, Eatons Plastics, lnc. Ad for Nook-N-Fletch.

Archery Magazine May 1958 p. 70 .Is Mfg. Co. Ad for .larrows."

Primary ExaminerAnton O. Oechsle Assistant E aminerPaul E. Shapiro Attorney, Agent, or Firm-ls1er and Ornstein 5 7 ABSTRACT A unitary fletching unit for an arrow utilizing chord ally directed vanes integrated with a tubular body which resiliently embraces the shaft of the arrow and on which the vanes describe a helical pattern. The fletching unit is preferably formed of an elastomeric synthetic resin of very thin section or wall thickness so as to provide a fletching unit having a weight not greater than twice the weight of a comparably sized feather fletching.

9 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures PATENTEUJUM 1 m4 INVENTOR. RONALD E. Meszmos mm m ATTORNEYS- 1 FLETCHING UNIT FOR ARROW BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates generally to the field of archery and more particularly to the fletching of arrows used either in field archery or in competitive archery.

The objective of fletching an arrow is for the purpose of providing stability in flight and accuracy in targeting. For a long time past, feathers have been individually mounted on the shaft of an arrow to provide the vanes for stability and accuracy. Feather fletching is still considered to be the most effective for this purpose, despite the fact that feather fletching is laborious, timeconsuming and costly. Although feather fletching has the desirable characteristics of lightness of weight and flexibility, it also has the additional disadvantages of lack of durability, fragility and hyper-sensitivity to rain and dampness which effect changes in its aero-dynamic characteristics and make performance non-uniform under varying weather conditions. a

Substitute fletchings to replace feathers have been proposed by the prior art, but these have taken the form of heavy-weight structures which, in practice, fall far short of the performance characteristics of feather fletched arrows both from the standpoint of stability in flight, accuracy, cast, velocity and flutter.

It has been found that a satisfactory and suitable fletching unit for arrows can be provided by utilizing very thin sections of self-sustaining flexible synthetic resin as vanes which are disposed in a chordal or nonradial relationship to the shaft of the arrow. This is in contrast to the teachings of the prior art, both in feather fletching and in substitute fletchings, which teach the use of radially extending vanes.

' SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention provides a fletching unit which is less costly and more durable than the widely accepted feather fletching, and is equal or even superior to feather fletching in the performance characteristics of the arrow. This is accomplished by utilizing thin sections of self-sustaining flexible synthetic resin as vanes which are integrated with a resilient tubular body portion for securing the fletching unit onto the arrow shaft. The vanes are disposed in a helical pattern on the body portion and extend in chordally directed planes relatively to the shaft of the arrow. By so mounting the vanes, they are stressed aero-dynamically in flight in opposition to their own rigidity, thereby preventing flutter even though the vanes are of extremely thin cross-section.

By minimizing or eliminating the possibility of flutter, the vanes can be made thin enough and sufficiently light in weight to compare favorably with feather fletching in performance characteristics. Additionally, the fletching unit of the invention has greater durability than feather fletching, is less sensitive to weather conditions and is less costly than feather fletching.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a view in elevation of an arrow equipped with a fletching unit embodying the features of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view, taken as indicated on line 2--2 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view,.taken as indicated on .line 3--3 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view, taken as indicated on line 4-4 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged cross-sectional representation of a modified form of tubular body for the fletching unit, taken as at line 5-5 of FIG. 1.

Portions of the fletching unit shown in the drawings, particularly the thickness of the wall sections, have been exaggerated for clarity of detail in illustration.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In FIGS. 1-4 of the drawings there is shown a representation of an arrow 10 having a head 11 at its forward end and a nock 12 at its rearward end. Mounted on the shaft 13 of the arrow adjacent to the nock 12 is a fletching unit 14 consisting of a plurality of vanes 15 which are integrated with a tubular body portion 16 and extends substantially longitudinally thereof in circumferentially spaced relationship.

The fletching unit 14 is formed of an elastomeric synthetic resin, such as polyethylene or polyurethane, and may either be an integrally molded unit or have the vanes integrated to the body portion by adhesives, heat sealing or other suitable bonding means. The tubular body portion 16 has a circular cross-section for mounting on the cylindrical shaft 13. The internal diameter of the tubular body portion is slightly less than that of the shaft on which it is to be mounted and due to the elastic or resilient character of the material of which it is formed, the body portion or sleeve 16 can be stretched or expanded sufficiently to slide it onto the shaft where it will become firmly, though detachably, secured by its resilient gripping action on the shaft. The sleeve 16 has a wall thickness of less than 0.010 inches, preferably on the order of 0.0065 to 0.0085 inches. The vanes 15 may have a thickness equal to the wall thickness of the sleeve 16 or even be thinner if desired, as long as they are sufficiently thick to be self-sustaining in an upstanding posture relatively to the body portion 16, as indicated on the drawings.

The vanes 15 have a generally wing-shaped configuration, tapering from a shallow leading edge portion at the forward end of the vane to a portion of maximum width or maximum heighth above the sleeve 16 toward the rearward portion of the vane. As shown in FIG. 1 of the drawings and in the progressive cross-sectional views of FIGS. 2, 3 and 4 of the drawings, each of the vanes 15 is disposed in a chordal plane relatively to the cylindrical body portion 16 and defines a helical pattern at its juncture with the body portion. Three of such vanes are shown by way of example in the drawings, but it will be understood that more of such vanes 15 may be utilized if desired, although three are ordinarily adequate to provide the desired axial spin and stability in flight which the vanes impart to the arrow. The helix angle will depend upon the number of vanes used and the degree of spin or rotational velocity desired to achieve stability, but will ordinarily not be less than 20. The direction of this helic angle or pitch can be either right-hand or left-hand depending upon the direction of spin desired.

It is to be noted that the pitch of the vane is defined at its juncture with the body portion 16, rather than by any twist in the vane element itself which is independent of and in opposition to its juncture pattern with the sleeve 16. It is also to be noted that each vane has a chordal relationship to the sleeve 16 rather than being radial and disposed in the plane of the longitudinal axis of the sleeve 16. This arrangement results in the vanes being stressed aero-dynamically by wind resistance in flight to cause some displacement of the vane toward a radial posture in opposition to its own chordal posture. This flight-induced stress on the vane creates a balance of opposing forces which serves to stiffen or enhance the rigidity of the vane to prevent and minimize flutter. As a consequence, the arrow has improved stability and accuracy and has greater velocity in flight. It will also be noted that the pitch of the vanes is not imparted to them by any helical twist in the body portion or sleeve 16 which might result in slippage or reverse torque on the body portion as a result of wind resistance encountered in flight and cause a change in the pitch of the vanes. In the fletching unit 14 the body portion 16 is not under any initial torsional stress, as would occur if it had to be twisted to impart a pitch to the vanes 15.

In feather fletching, the feather vanes are directly mounted on the shaft of the arrow thus eliminating the weight of the body portion 16 which is required to be utilized for convenient mounting of the fletching unit 14. For that reason, the fletching unit 14 approaches but does not equal the light weight of feather fletching. For example, the described form of fletching unit 14 having a length of five inches will have a weight of fifteen-twenty grains, whereas feather fletching of comparable dimensional configuration will have a weight on the order of ten-twelve grains. However, even though the fletching unit 14 may approach twice the weight of comparable feather fletching, this weight ratio is substantially less than that of any prior art synthetic fletching unit. This favorable weight ratio can even be further reduced if desired, by utilizing a modifled form of tubular body portion or sleeve 17 which is the same as the previously described sleeve 16 except that it is provided throughout its length with a plurality of openings or perforations 18 for the purpose of reducing the weight of the body portion 17. This modified form of fletching unit will closely approach the weight of an equivalent feather fletching and will, of course, be of less weight than the fletching unit 14 which is not provided with such weight-reducing perforations.

An arrow equipped with the described fletching unit 14 will in all aspects of performance, such as stability, velocity, cast and accuracy equal or exceed the performance characteristics of a comparable arrow with feather fletching. Particularly in windy or damp weather, an arrow having the fletching unit 14 demonstrates superior accuracy and cast over the feather fletching. I claim:

1. In a fletching unit for an arrow, the combination of an elastic tubular body portion of substantially circular cross-section for mounting on an arrow shaft, a plurality of self-sustaining flexible vanes upstanding from said body portion in circumferentially-spaced relationship and integrated therewith, each of said vanes being disposed in a non-radial substantially chordally di-' rected relationship to said circular body portion, and each of said vanes extending substantially longitudinally of said body portion and defining a uniform helical pattern at its juncture with said body portion whereby to oppose flight-induced change in the pitch of said vanes.

2. A combination as defined in claim 1, wherein said tubular body portion is of slightly smaller diameter than the shaft diameter of the arrow on which it is to be mounted.

3. A combination as defined in claim 1, wherein said vanes define a helical pitch of at least 20.

4. A combination as defined in claim 1, wherein said body portion is provided with a plurality of weight-' reducing openings in the wall thereof.

5. A combination as defined in claim 1, wherein said fletching unit is formed of an elastomeric synthetic resin.

6. A combination as defined in claim 5, wherein said vanes have a thickness of less than 0.010 inches.

7. A combination as defined in claim 5, wherein said fletching unit has a weight of not more than 20 grains and a length of at least 5 inches.

8. In an arrow, the combination of a shaft, an arrowhead mounted on the forward end of said shaft, a fletching unit resiliently secured adjacent the rearward end of said shaft, said fletching unit being formed of an elastomeric synthetic resin and comprising a tubular body portion of substantially circular cross-section and of smaller diameter than said shaft and a plurality of circumferentially spaced upstanding self-sustaining flexible vanes integrated with said body portion, each of said vanes being disposed in a non-radial substantially chordally directed relationship to said circular body portion and defining a uniform helical pattern at its juncture with said body portion, whereby to oppose flight-induced change in the pitch of said vanes.

9. A combination as defined in claim 8, wherein said vanes define a helical pitch of at least 20. 

1. In a fletching unit for an arrow, the combination of an elastic tubular body portion of substantially circular crosssection for mounting on an arrow shaft, a plurality of selfsustaining flexible vanes upstanding from said body portion in circumferentially-spaced relationship and integrated therewith, each of said vanes being disposed in a non-radial substantially chordally directed relationship to said circular body portion, and each of said vanes extending substantially longitudinally of said body portion and defining a uniform helical pattern at its juncture with said body portion whereby to oppose flight-induced change in the pitch of said vanes.
 2. A combination as defined in claim 1, wherein said tubular body portion is of slightly smaller diameter than the shaft diameter of the arrow on which it is to be mounted.
 3. A combination as defined in claim 1, wherein said vanes define a helical pitch of at least 20*.
 4. A combination as defined in claim 1, wherein said body portion is provided with a plurality of weight-reducing openings in the wall thereof.
 5. A combination as defined in claim 1, wherein said fletching unit is formed of an elastomeric synthetic resin.
 6. A combination as defined in claim 5, wherein said vanes have a thickness of less than 0.010 inches.
 7. A cOmbination as defined in claim 5, wherein said fletching unit has a weight of not more than 20 grains and a length of at least 5 inches.
 8. In an arrow, the combination of a shaft, an arrowhead mounted on the forward end of said shaft, a fletching unit resiliently secured adjacent the rearward end of said shaft, said fletching unit being formed of an elastomeric synthetic resin and comprising a tubular body portion of substantially circular cross-section and of smaller diameter than said shaft and a plurality of circumferentially spaced upstanding self-sustaining flexible vanes integrated with said body portion, each of said vanes being disposed in a non-radial substantially chordally directed relationship to said circular body portion and defining a uniform helical pattern at its juncture with said body portion, whereby to oppose flight-induced change in the pitch of said vanes.
 9. A combination as defined in claim 8, wherein said vanes define a helical pitch of at least 20*. 